Publisher's Description

Grayson McDonough has no use for teal ribbons, 5k runs, or ovarian cancer support groups now that his beautiful wife Jenna is gone. But their nine-year-old daughter Sadie seems to need the connection. When Annabelle Curtis, the beautiful cancer survivor organizing the memory quilt project for the Ovacome support group, begins to bring out the silly and fun side of his precious daughter again, Gray must set aside his own grief to support the healing of Sadies young heart. But is there hope for Grays heart too along the way?

Author Bio

Sandra D. Bricker was an entertainment publicist in Los Angeles for more than 15 years, where she attended school to learn screenwriting and eventually taught the craft for several semesters. She is now a best-selling, award-winning author of Live-Out-Loud Fiction for the inspirational market, best known for her Emma Rae Creation series. As an ovarian cancer survivor, she gears time and effort toward raising awareness and funds for research, diagnostics, and a cure. Sandra resides in Toledo, Ohio, and online at SandraDBricker.com.

I picked up 'something to read' just so. Though I do not quilt, I wanted to see how "raw edges" figured in with a quilt.. Not to spoil this, I think the finished quilt does not seem to have raw edges.? Some of the people were hilarious. As another reviewer said, Mr. is ueber-perfect. Ending predictable, but then it's a romance story and it fits. Even the auction result. Neat story, recipes, and I like the mom-to-daughter letters; nice touch.

Sandra D. Bricker is known for her humor and I was curious to see how that would work in a book about ovarian cancer. She did a wonderful job. It was a touching story about a serious subject, but the humor was also there. I fell in love with the characters and I thought the way she had entries from the mother's diary to her daughter was a great way to get to know that character. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It was a great book.

A year after his wife Jenna passes away from ovarian cancer, Gray and his daughter is invited to the ovacome support group and gets involved in helping with the quilting project. They meet Annabelle there,She, Gray and Sadie get to know each other and fall in love.

At the end of each chapter is a page from a journal written to Sadie from her Mommy that passed away from ovarian cancer. After the journal for that day a bible verse is written that goes so well with that part in the journal.

I learned a lot from this book besides about quilting, one of the most interesting to me was about the African black footed penguins.

This is a book that I would love to read again and was not ready for it to end. I very well written book.

Oh my! I knew that Sandie wrote funny books, but I didn't know she could write funny books that would tug my heartstrings like Raw Edges did! Raw Edges introduces readers to four of the most lovable characters I've read about in a long time. Gray and Sadie are still reeling from the loss of their wife and mother a year earlier. Annabelle is dedicating her time to volunteer for Ovacome, a support group that helped her through the worst time in her life. And Miss Essie is encouraging all three of them as they try to move on from the cancer that tried to steal the joy from their lives. The characters were so fun that they felt like friends. I also loved the idea of telling a story through a quilt. It was fun to see everyone get caught up in the project and the project move them toward deeper relationships with one another.

There were a few times that I wished for a little more. For instance, was the fact that Annabelle was an ovarian cancer survivor (the same disease that killed Gray's wife) not a problem for him as he began falling for her? Surely it was. But those little things were just that ... little. Most of the time, though, I wanted more because I just loved the story so much and wasn't ready for it to be over.

From start to finish this books was charming and I was totally caught up in it. As I finished Raw Edges in the wee hours of the morning, I turned the last page with a satisfied sigh. Bricker outdid herself! I would say this is my favorite of hers so far! [4.5 stars]

I received a free copy of this book from Abingdon Press and Christian Fiction Blog Alliance in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Grayson McDonough wished that they made something like bias tape to fix the raw edges in his own life. After spending more than a year dealing with the loss of his wife Jenna to Ovarian Cancer, he still couldn't find a way to move forward. It seems that it was easier for his young nine-year-old daughter, Sadie and reading the journal her mother left her with life lessons made those days easier to manage. Even though she missed her mother deeply, the words she penned in the journal offering snippets of wisdom, advice and even insights into her dad enabled Sadie to believe that her mother was still a part of their lives, if she could only get her dad to read it.

It seems like they need a door to open and the invitation came in the form of a quilting group through a cancer support group known as Ovacome. The young women running the project, Annabelle Curtis knows how much cancer can affect the family. Not only just the families dealing with the loss of a loved one, but also for survivors like herself. In Annabelle's situation her future was dashed when she learned she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and had to undergo a hysterectomy that resulted in her fiancÃ¨ calling off their wedding and also their relationship in favor of someone who could have children.

Now that Sadie has been drawn to helping put together a quilt of scraps of fabric from those who had loss a loved one to cancer and also those who are survivors, she forms a connection with Annabelle that helps her move forward in her own life, finding joy in the simple ways of simply spending time enjoying life instead of merely getting by. Slowly over the course of the novel, Gray has no choice but to get involved since Sadie needs transportation to get to the quilting meetings and soon finds himself working on a project to help benefit the sale of the quilt. Along the way, he realizes that even though life is hard to get through on some days, his wife Jenna left behind a legacy that will last forever.

I received Raw Edges by Sandra D. Bricker compliments of Abingdon Press and Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review. This is such a poignant story to read and you can't help but get emotionally involved not only in Sadie and Gray's situation but also Annabelle's story as a survivor. It really is about healing and dealing with the loss of broken hearts and shows that time will slowly allow those wounds to heal but those memories we create will truly last a lifetime. This is my first novel with Sandra D. Bricker and I will be on the lookout for more of her books. She invests the time to entice the reader to become a part of the story and for that reason I give this one a 5 out of 5 stars. This novel is number 10 in the Quilts of Love Series and can be read in any order.